ABSTRACT
Much of the architectural work is driven by the public sector and this, in turn, is carried out by traditional practices. To be an architect you have to have empathy with everybody around you: your family, wider society, and your client. So spending life in a bubble simply to hit the next deadline means you don’t fully experience the world or understand how others experience it. If the next generation of architects can create an architectural career that suits their personal lives–choosing to work in places not because you have to but because you want to be there. This parable of the male architect and the female academic concludes with two observations. Firstly, that as individuals across the gender spectrum, we should listen more to one another, constructing moments for open, direct and, indeed, directed conversations. Secondly, as a community we need to listen to a wider range of practitioners, since we are much more than a gendered profession.
